Screening Social Media

Screening social media is a reality in today’s world as companies have been implementing this practice for years (Ebnet, 2012). At this time, we can conclude that social networking screening is more of a benefit to society than it is a negative. Social networking sites help employers to not only perform background checks but to find potential employees as well. LinkedIn is a social networking site where people present themselves professionally in order to be discovered by potential employers. Employers may hire third parties that have been established by the FCRA to screen and protect the privacy of the potential employees in the hiring process (Ebnet, 2012). Anything that the applicants feel they would not like to share with the public on their social media can be hidden by privacy settings (Brown, 2011). Screening social media prevents high risk applicants that may be lying in their application or have evidence of not being the type of employee the employer would want working for him. Applicants with a history of bashing their boss or disclosing confidential information on the company will be noticed through the screening process (Davis, 2012). This is important, as social media has reached a high population making it easy for anyone to come across and view the material that has been posted (Brown, 2011).  Ultimately, screening social networking sites lead to a more successful hiring process by choosing the applicant with a higher probability of doing well.